The present invention relates to an endoscope shaft.
Endoscopes are instruments especially for exploring cavities or tube-shaped canals of the body, for instance for medical purposes. Endoscopes of this kind are preferably used for exploring the gullet, the stomach, the duodenum from the stomach, the intestine from the anus, the urethra, the vesica and the ureter. Endoscopes are mostly equipped with a lighting device at their front end and with an optical system for visually detecting the area of the body cavity or body canal located forward thereof.
Further, endoscopes usually comprise a working conduit, as it is called, through which various working instruments can be introduced and operated, e.g. forceps for taking tissue samples, biopsy needles, heatable cutting wires, small scissors or the like. Finally, as a rule, functional conduits, for instance a fluid conduit for wash and operating wires for bending the front end of the endoscope in various directions, are provided. Altogether the endoscope has, apart from its rear operating end and a connecting cord, an elongated flexible bar and/or shaft shape. The common outer diameters approximately range from 9 to 15 mm and are slightly larger at the front head.
So far, endoscopes have been introduced into the body by the physician pushing the pressure-stiff endoscope and/or the pressure-stiff endoscope shaft into the body from the part of the endoscope protruding from the body. This way of introducing the endoscope is particulary laborious, difficult and also extremely painful for the patient, especially in the case of the coloscope, as in the latter case the intestine has bends and frequently isthmuses which the endoscope shaft has to follow. Accordingly, coloscopic examinations so far have been complex examinations which are unpleasant and painful for the patient. Moreover the handling of a coloscope requires a physician experienced in this matter.
Furthermore, prior art has shown that endoscopes of the know construction represent extremely complicated and thus cost-intensive designs due to the stiffness required for inserting them into the patient's cavity to be examined, while at the same time they have to be flexible. These constructions are so expensive that they have to be employed again and again. Therefore, it is necessary to take complex cleaning and sanitary measures after each examination, which also bears a risk of damaging the endoscope shaft in the end, especially when such cleaning operations are carried out by untrained staff. Moreover the bending radii to be achieved are so large that an examination substantially without pain of an intestine wall, for instance, is not possible.
In view of this situation, it is an object of the invention to provide an endoscope shaft having better characteristics for example with respect to its flexibility.